ABSTRACT
Wherever human beings have lived on earth, they have altered the environment to meet their subsistence needs and have sometimes done so in environmentally destructive ways. The environment has also shaped people’s social and political organizations, relations with neighbours, and many other aspects of their lives. The environment is not simply a physical container for human action but also a moral space that gives meaning to the people who are connected to the environment in which they live. Some Indigenous groups have a deep knowledge of their natural world and its health capabilities, but these can also be the object of exploitation by capitalist interests with little regard for the guardians of the knowledge. In many contexts, humans, animals, and other elements in the natural world organize life in tandem, demonstrating that nature and culture form a continuum rather than being in opposition to one another. Some anthropologists have played an important role in limiting or reversing the damage meted out by uncontrolled capitalist exploitation of the environment.
